Integrating Literacy in Mathematics

By: Kathlyn Kizer

Why Integrate Literacy Into Math?

Students need to relate Math to other content areas

Students need to apply Math to real life situations

Why Integrate Literacy Into Math?

Students need to be encouraged to read in all subject areas

Students will be more likely to better understand the topic they are studying

Using Books

Mathematical Fictionhttp://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/ Site developed by Alex Kasman Includes 363 books incorporating fiction and math students

can read Can sort books by title, author, mathematical content, and

literary quality (among other things)

Mathematical Fiction Examples of Books Listed:

Who Killed the Duke of Densmore?http://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/mf277.html

“The murder mystery in the title took place many years ago and the only witnesses are a group of women who each visited the crime scene for a single stretch of time. They each remember whom they met there (each other, that is) but not when they were there. This provides the perfect setting for a beautiful application of a theorem of mathematics (in particular, Hajos' theorem on which graphs can be "interval graphs") to a murder mystery.” – Kasman

Mathematical Fiction Examples of Books Listed:

The Island of Five Colorshttp://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/mf100.html

“In this sequel to The No-sided Professor, our heroes tackle the Four Color Theorem, which was unproved at the time. Included are some historically accurate details about the prior attempts to prove the theorem, and a (fictional) counter-example in the form of an African island divided into five simply connected districts -- each of which borders the other and the ocean.” - Kasman

Using Newspapers

Numeracy in the Newshttp://ink.news.com.au/mercury/mathguys/introduc.htm

This site contains a variety of newspaper articles and includes questions for students and discussions for teachers. It is designed to encourage teachers to use their own hometown newspaper in math lessons.

http://www.educ.utas.edu.au/users/watsonjm/content/FrontendMercury/WebLink-Numeracy.htm - introduction to site by Jane Watson

This introduction illustrates how newspapers can be used in multiple ways in the classroom. She provides examples of short articles and different approaches you can use in teaching with them

Using the Internet

Web Journeyhttp://www.highland.madison.k12.il.us/jbasden/quest/Web Journey is an on-line trip planner for students. They must learn about transportation, mileage, food and lodging expenses, and entertainment costs in the area they are traveling. This assignment can be integrated with a variety of other content areas and students can read on a variety of topics depending on where they are traveling. For example, on a unit about oceans, reefs, and plate tectonics students can make a trip to The Great Barrier Reef in Australia!!

Taking Stockhttp://www.santacruz.k12.ca.us/~jpost/projects/TS/TS.htmlTaking Stock is an on-line interactive telecommunications project in which students must use research, writing skills, math knowledge, and collaborative learning to learn about the Stock Market.

Integrative Projects Connecting Math, Literature, and other content areas:

Historical and Geographical Connectionshttp://mathforum.org/sum95/suzanne/historytess.htmlMany historical architecture offers excellent examples of tessellations or tilings.

El Niño or El No-nohttp://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/projects/ElNino/Students are responsible for collecting data, organizing it in graphic form and analyzing it to make weather predictions in their community

Energy Conservation Enhancement Projecthttp://www.leeric.lsu.edu/bgbb/7/ecep/ecep.htm

This program enhances energy education increasing the knowledge of energy conservation / efficiency techniques.This link takes you directly to the math related lessons:http://www.leeric.lsu.edu/bgbb/7/ecep/math/math.htm

                        

Bibliography Berge, Claude. Who Killed the Duke of Densmore. ©1994. “El Niño or El No-no”. Dec. 2001.

URL:http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/projects/ElNino/ “Energy Conservation Project”. University of Southwestern Louisiana. 1993.

URL:http://www.leeric.lsu.edu/bgbb/7/ecep/ecep.htm Gardner, Martin. The Island of Five Colors. ©1952. “Historical and Geographical Connections for Tessellations and Tilings”. The

Math Forum. ©1994-2003. URL:http://mathforum.org/sum95/suzanne/historytess.html

Kasman, Alex. “Mathematical Fiction”. College of Charleston, Math Department. URL:http://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/

“Numeracy in the News”. URL:http://ink.news.com.au/mercury/mathguys/introduc.htm

“Taking Stock, An Integrated Thematic Curriculum”. Happy Valley School District, 1995. URL: http://www.santacruz.k12.ca.us/~jpost/projects/TS/TS.html

“Web Journey”. Highland Middle School. URL:http://www.highland.madison.k12.il.us/jbasden/quest/